


You are just like me, Rhysie

by Alexander_Wesker



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Gen, Holo!Jack - Freeform, Minor Character Death, My First Work in This Fandom, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-08
Updated: 2018-08-10
Packaged: 2019-06-07 09:15:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15215975
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alexander_Wesker/pseuds/Alexander_Wesker
Summary: Rhys has put his old cybernetic eye back and maybe it was only an half bad thing...





	1. Chapter 1

 

Rhys staggered back, his arms trembling as he dropped the gun. “No”, he gasped, staring at the unmoving, bloodied figure on the ground. “No. No, no, no. It can’t be- this can’t—” 

”Oh”, a voice laughed behind him, and he swirled to face whoever was that who laughed, noticing only while he was turning the faint blue light emitting from there. “It’s real. Trust me, kiddo. It’s all real. You killed him like the cold blooded murderer you are.”

”No”, Rhys insisted. It can’t be, he wasn’t like him, he wasn’t a murderer. “You, you did something to me.”

The holographic man laughed again, looking at him with a wide grin on his face. “And how exactly would have I done it, Rhysie? That-”he said, blandly pointing at his new chromed cybernetic arm “is Atlas technology, darling, I can’t control it even if I want. And, trust me, I would love to take control of your arm to strangle you to death.”

‘ _Because the last time it went well, Jack’_ was the sarcastic response that came in Rhys’s mind, not that he actually said it, still too much shocked by the fact that he… HE killed a guy, shooting him right in the head.

“I-I don’t know how… but you did it! It must have been you, I… could never...” Rhys said, as if ignoring the last phrase said by the hologram.

Jack looked down at him, with an amused light that sparkled in his eyes. “Keep telling you that, sweetheart. I don’t care as long as we leave this fucking place, I’m freezing my ass here and I don’t even have one!… I mean I have a holographic projection of my beautiful ass but that’s not what I wanted to tell you. My point is, cupcake, that I don’t feel anything but I definitely know that is freezing out here, so for your safety, and of consequence mine, just go somewhere else to think on your first homicide”

But Rhys remained still as if he was turned in stone, his eyes still pointed to the ground. He knew that reinserting that damned eye would have been a bad idea… but he felt so lonely. None of his friends, not even Vaughn, had come to visit him in the Atlas dome after all that ‘Opening the Vault of the Traveler’ thing.

He was so lost in his thought that didn’t even noticed that the grin on Jack’s face had fall, replaced by a much more serious expression on his masked face.

“Hey, kiddo” Jack called, trying to catch Rhys’s attention. Failing. He tried to call him a few more times before changing his tactic, disappearing in the thin air in a cloud of blue pixels before reappearing so close to Rhys that if Jack was real, the man would have felt his breath against his skin.

At the sudden appearance of the hologram the programmer, now Atlas CEO, jumped back with surprise wrote all over his expression. “Jack!”he yelled out of surprise.

A little, almost invisible, smirk bent Jack’s lips at that. “Well, Rhysie, if you hadn’t space out so much I would have not scared you so much”

“You… You didn’t scared me… I was surprised that’s all” Rhys said in response, now looking at the hologram with a much calmer expression on his face.

“Yeah, yeah as you say, kiddo. Anyway have you any intention of leaving this place or what? Are you gonna look to that bandit scum corpse until the skag come to maul it?”

Immediately after that words, Rhys looked down, guilt burning in his eyes.

“No, no, I’m not gonna permit you to space out on me again, cupcake!” Jack said “Now, look at me, Rhysie, not the floor not the body, look at me” he requested, his voice was serious and stern. Rhys looked up slowly. The hologram gave him a little smile, more of a strange mix of a grin and a smirk than a real smile, and then continued “I know it could seem difficult to accept, Rhys, and yes you killed that man, but he would have not hesitated to shoot you down. It’s the way things go on this godforsaken planet, cupcake, you must accept it. Because you know, how things go on Pandora… this planet his inhabited by psychos and bandits, monsters and all of the worst things you can imagine and you will have to kill them to survive. And well if you want to maintain your conscience clear you can always say it’s my fault, I don’t mind as long as we stay alive. Though… Don’t say it to your friends, that crazy vault-hunter-wannabe would put a bullet between your eyes without even thinking”

The cybernetic man nodded a bit before saying: “You are right, Jack… I hope it will not be a regular thing though… And yeah, I will say nothing about all of this with Fiona, she still don’t trust me that much...”

“Glad we came to an agreement, Rhysie. Now, pick that gun up. And let’s leave this fucking place, shall we?”

Rhys picked up the gun that he dropped before and nodded to the hologram that smiled, this time he really smiled at him, with what appeared to be a bit of pride in his eyes even if Rhys didn’t know why.

As Rhys left the half crumbled down building, Jack stayed back for a little while looking at him, his smile that became more darker as the light in his eyes.

‘ _You think I didn’t see that half smile on your face while you shot that bandit, Rhys? Oh, cupcake, you are so, so naive if you think that. You are just like me, Rhysie, you have just to accept it_ ’ He thought and then vanished.


	2. Reaffirming the control

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rhys didn't want to do it, but Jack was right, if he didn't he would have lose all

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so, so sorry if it took so long to update, but I bought Detroit: Become Human and got so hooked with the game that I forgot to update.... I'm sorry, I hope you will like it.

 

Almost half month had passed from the day Rhys killed that bandit and Jack manifested his holographic presence once again and the programmer, now CEO, was actually starting to get used to the, almost, constant presence of the AI to his side, always making sarcastic remarks or commenting about him or what he was doing wrong according to his opinion of how a CEO would have to do to maintain his power and be utterly respected.

And he was getting good to ignore his comments almost completely when someone else was with him, and even in making sure no-one would discover his secret to a level that seemed almost paranoiac, though Jack pretty much agreed with him every time he went through the recordings of his security  cameras to delete every footage showing him talking with ‘nothing’ and replaced them with digitally constructed frames to make the cuts unnoticeable.

 

Sometimes Rhys asked himself if Jack was intentionally feeding his paranoia to make him a little bit more similar to him, the previously mentioned AI always laughed at that, saying that he didn’t need to do such thing as he was already pretty much to his level, Rhys usually ended up, ignoring that comment. Not always though, often he didn’t ignore him when he was feeling more insecure than usual… Unsure if he was really so much like the Hyperion’s CEO.

 

But in the present moment, Rhys was not that far to actually do what the AI was suggesting him, all because of a little, scared man that was working for him and had, almost, succeeded into selling some of his new project for his new line of guns to  Maliwan.

 

“You know what you have to do, Rhysie” Jack said to him, smirking while he circled around the scared man as a shark studying his prey before snapping a bite, despite his smirk his tone was low and freezing cold.

 

And yes, Rhys knew what to do, but he didn’t really want to do it. Not after all the time he passed trying to reassure himself that he was, in fact, not like Jack at all.

 

“If you don’t make an example out of this little coward of a traitor, those others slick, opportunists bastards won’t have any problem in stabbing you in the back, as the little  snakes they are.” the holographic man added, still circling the man. Suddenly he stopped, his eyes pointed on Rhys “You know I’m right, Rhys. They are all ex-Hyperions and you know what is the only way to maintain them under your control” 

 

Rhys almost nodded to Jack, before remembering of the other man in his office, that now was pale as if he had seen a ghost. Maybe he had, after all the look on Rhys’ face was like a perfect mirror of the one that Handsome Jack used to have when confronted with this kind of situation.

 

“What should I do with you, hn?” Rhys asked rhetorically to the man that started immediately to stutter some kind of excuse to save his pathetic life… Wait… since when Rhys find the life of his workers pathetic?

The CEO had not the time to think more about it because his attention was again on the stuttering man. “Why would I  spare you? You betrayed me once, who can assure me you will not do that again?”

 

The man looked at him, his eyes filled with terror. “I-I will never do it again, sir…” he managed to say after some seconds of just opening and closing his mouth, like a fish, without saying a word.

 

Rhys stood up from his chair and walked around his desk, in front of the scared man. His steps were slow and confident, while the holographic Hyperion’s CEO looked at him with a smile and approva l sparkling in his eyes.

Rhys picked his gun from his jacket and pointed it on the man, that started crying and begging him to not shoot.

 

The CEO looked down on him, his expression almost completely blank, if not a bit bored, even if it was not how Rhys felt, he in fact didn’t want to shoot one of his workers but Jack was right, if he didn’t, the other s wouldn’t respect him, as they did now, anymore.

“You know, darling, if you didn’t betray me, you would have, actually, been promoted. But I guess it’s out of the table now” Rhys said, his voice lacking any kind of emotion. “Well, I learned something. Jack was right, with a position as mine, I can’t trust anybody.” then he pulled the trigger, a slight smile bent his lips involuntarily.

The man’s eyes large with shock, and than his body fell forward, his blood started pooling under him, staining the carpet.

 

“And that’s how you do it! Well done, cupcake!” Jack congratulated him, clapping with his hands, in a way that almost seemed a bit  mocking but not really.

 

Rhys sighed and then called his assistant, another ex-Hyperion employ, that didn’t seem too surprised of his boss request, he almost seemed surprise, even if he hid it well, that had took so long to him before doing what Handsome Jac k would have done.

 

For a moment Rhys asked himself why everyone expected him to be like Jack, he didn’t have an answer and neither did the AI apparently.

 

“It was quite a show, Rhysie! I have to say that you impressed me right there and you know I don’t give congratulations often, but you deserve it honestly.” Jack said with his usual tone “Next time we’re going to use that skag nest that’s right under your window, it will be awesome! Almost as air locking someone, but with more blood and guts sprayed like everywhere” he added cheerfully.

“No, there will be no next time, Jack. I’m not like you” Rhys confuted. 

“Yeah, sure, Rhysie, as you say” Jack responded sarcastically before disappearing.

 

Rhys sighed again, walking back to his desk and then going near the window that Jack  had  mentioned, looking down on that nest that was perfectly visible under the edge of the cliff on which the Atlas’ structure was built.

 

The cybernetic man observed the pup skags that were fighting each other in a playful way, while thinking how much he missed his friends… and how much he was scared that if he continued staying alone with the murderous AI in his head giving him advi ce , he would not be able to not become like him.

 

 

He already thought he was a bit like him anyway because of Hyperion.

 

‘ _ Please, guys _ ’ he thought, while the AI was been uncharacteristically silent, ‘ _ I think I’m going to become something I don’t want to be, if you leave me alone any longer _ ’

 

Then he heard a strange, low, chuckle directly in his head.

 

‘  _ You don’t need anyone, Rhysie, you have me. And that ‘something you don’t wanna become’… well, cupcake you already were it from the beginning _ ’ the AI thought, remaining unheard from Rhys.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you all for reading, this is my first fic written in english from the beginning,I usually wrote them in my language before and then I translated them, this time I wrote it directly in english so tell me if I made any mistakes I will correct them immediately


End file.
